The Vilcabamba Prophecy: A Nick Randall Novel (28 page)

“Negative. I
sent several messages, but I don’t know if they were ever received. Whatever’s
going on is really interfering with our communication system. I think we’re on
our own here.”

Sam struggled
forward to the front of the helicopter.

“How far are we
from a safe landing spot? The guy who’s flying that helicopter behind us is
crazy. If he has his way, he’ll turn your helicopter into Swiss cheese.”

“We still have
a ways to go and that bird back there is faster than us. Factoring in the added
weight only makes us that much slower.”

“Can you call
for help?”

“Tried that
already, but something is jamming our communication system.”

“When did you
try?”

“Right before
we picked you up. We saw some guy standing all alone on the mountain and were
going to help him out when this thing showed up.” Jesse gestured toward the
combat chopper behind them. “We tried calling air traffic control but all I got
was static.”

“Try it now, I
have a feeling it will work.”

Jesse gave Sam
a long, hard stare. He didn’t know who she was, but doubted that she knew
anything about electronic communication systems on aircraft. Sam sensed his
doubt. “What’s your name?”

“Jesse.”

“Jesse, I know
you don’t know me from Adam, but you have to trust me here. I’m pretty sure I
know why your radio wasn’t working. The underground facility we escaped from
was jamming your signal, but the cause of the interference is gone now.” She
placed a hand on Jesse’s shoulder. “Please.”

Jesse keyed the
mike. “Control tower, this is November 2115, over.”

“November 2115,
this is Air Traffic Control Arequipa.” Jesse shot a glance in Sam’s direction.
She had a smile plastered on her face and gave a small “I don’t know” shrug.

“Tower, this is
November 2115, we have a situation. We are under fire from hostile aircraft, I
repeat, we are under fire from aggressive aircraft.”

“November 2115,
are you near
Misti
?

“Affirmative,
tower, hostile aircraft is an EC-665 Tiger Combat helicopter, I repeat an Echo
Charlie Six, Six, Five Combat Chopper!”

Bullets once
again whizzed by the Sikorsky, several finding their mark. Glass exploded from
the rear of the injured helicopter as everyone dropped to the ground for
protection.

“Goddam it!
Tower, this is November
2115,
we are hit and continue
to take fire from aggressive aircraft. Do you read?”

“November 2115,
we read you. You are on a four-mile final for 9R. What are you doing by the
volcano? The Directorate of Air Transportation has closed all air traffic to
that region. You are in restricted airspace.”

“Roger that,
tower, I am operating under the authority of the United States Geological
Survey. We were monitoring
Misti
and picked up four
civilians stranded on the mountain. We are now being pursued and attacked by
unknown aircraft. We have suffered damage.”

Jesse heard
only silence on his radio.

“We got them!”
Tom announced, pulling Randall and Phil into the bay of the Sikorsky and
closing the door.

More gunfire
and more hits to the Sikorsky; the engine was now smoking. “Strap yourselves
in!” Jesse put the Sikorsky into a steep dive, heading for the craggy, rocky
surface of
Misti
.

“What are you
doing, Jesse?” Tom asked, his face white as ash.

“Trying to save
our collective
asses
!”

The helicopter
fell straight toward the earth at frightening speed. As the earth drew nearer,
Tom’s concern grew that they would not be able to pull out of the death dive.
Finally, the pressure was too much.

“Jesse, pull up
this damn helicopter! There’s no point trying to save us if you kill us in the
process!”

At the last
possible moment, Jesse pulled back on the stick. It fought back tremendously,
inertia not wanting their path to change. With great effort, he leveled out the
Sikorsky and immediately looked back to see the other helicopter following
closely behind. He wasn’t finished. He began to fly very low, hugging the
contour of the ground below him and trying to use the natural features to evade
the other helicopter. This technique, Nap-of-the-Earth, while unsettling to
others, was
second-nature
to Jesse, given the number
of times he had used the strategy in the service.

Tom looked on
wearily. “Have you done this before?” Jesse nodded and then he saw what he
wanted: a tree-lined stream. He aimed the Sikorsky straight for it. Flying
below the tree line, Jesse skillfully guided the injured helicopter along, the
other helicopter still in pursuit but unable to get a clear enough view to take
a shot.

“So what’s the
plan?”

“Arequipa
Airport is on the other side of this mountain. We’re going to fly like this as
long as we can, and when we get to the other side of the mountain, we’re going
to make a beeline straight for the airport. Hopefully by then we’ll have radio
access again and can get some help to get this guy off our tail.”

Not much of a plan
, Tom thought
to himself, but he didn’t have any better ideas. Instead, he walked to the back
of the helicopter to check on their new guests.

“You folks
okay?” They responded with a round of nods. “Good, now can you tell me what the
hell is going on here? We caught the light show from
Misti
,
saw people popping out of the side of a goddam volcano, and now we have another
helicopter trying to kill us.”

Sam and Randall
exchanged glances, and then looked back at Tom. No one said anything. Tom
sighed. “Are you serious? We just pulled your assess out of the fire, and
you’re going to give me the silent treatment?”

More blank
stares.

“Fine, I’ll
tell you my friend’s theory.” He pointed to Jesse in the cockpit. “He thinks
there’s a secret testing facility of some sort under that mountain, and
something went terribly wrong. Is it a government facility? What are they
testing, and what were you folks doing there?”

Randall saw the
opening and jumped in. “He’s right, it is a secret facility, but we don’t have
anything to do with it. We were researching archeological ruins inside the
mountain and stumbled onto the facility.”

“There’s an
archeological site in
Misti
?”

“Yes, and while
we were there, we ran across these characters who weren’t happy about us being
near their facility. They took us prisoner and we had to escape.”

“You were taken
prisoner?”

“That’s right.
We escaped through the tunnel you saw,” Randall answered.

“Jesse and I
heard and saw an explosion. What happened?”

“An earthquake
closed the opening before my dad could get out. He had to use an explosive
charge to blow a hole in the side of the mountain to escape,” Sam said.

Tom cocked his
head to the side and, looking unsure about the story, nodded for them to
continue.

“The guy you
saw pop out of the mountain before us, is the head of the facility. He wasn’t
very happy that we got away. That’s his helicopter and he doesn’t want us
sharing what we saw with the outside world,” Randall said.

“What did you
see?”

“Just a lot of
fancy electronic equipment and soldiers toting weapons. That’s the thing, the
place looked like a state-of-the-art research facility, but we have no idea
what they’re testing. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. To
tell you the truth, we were lucky to get out alive.”

Randall
searched Tom’s reaction to see if he was buying his story. He knew that when,
or if, they made it back to civilization safely, he would have to explain what
had happened to the authorities, as well. He viewed Tom as a test case. If he
could convince him, he might have a chance to convince the authorities. Of
course, it would help that the University could confirm his research story. The
only loose end would be George, and they would undoubtedly check to confirm
each of their identities before letting anyone go.

“So you’re all
archaeologists?” Tom asked.

“All of us
except George, there.” Randall pointed at his injured friend. “He’s an
engineer, and we asked him to join us because of alleged electromagnetic
interference associated with the site. None of us has the expertise in that
field, and I have a colleague, Dr. Francisco Andrade, who has worked with
George before. He recommended we contact him. Of course we found that the cause
of the electromagnetic interference was the facility and whatever they’re doing
there.”

Tom rubbed his
neck,
“I guess I’ll just have to take you at your word. The
electromagnetic interference part makes sense. We tried calling the control
tower on several occasions and couldn’t get through until after we saw the
light show and explosions.”

Tom stared at
Randall, then turned to look at Sam and the others.

“We barely got
out of that tunnel before some major volcanic activity started. I could be
wrong, but I think parts of the mountain started to collapse. There was magma
coming up the tube we escaped through. My guess is that the geothermal activity
down there destroyed most of the facility and whatever was generating the
electromagnetic field. That would have been right around when you picked us
up.”

Randall watched
as Tom studied him, unsure if he believed the story. Small details aside, his
story was mostly true and would explain most of what Tom and Jesse had seen and
experienced.

Tom scratched
his head and had a thoughtful look on his face. Randall could see him weighing
the facts in his head.

“We’ve been
through a lot, and I just want to get us all home,” Randall said, placing a
hand on Sam’s shoulder. Tom’s posture softened.

 
“What are your names?”

“That’s my
daughter, Samantha; this is Phil, he’s a graduate student who works for me; and
I’m Nick Randall. And your name is?” Randall stuck out his hand.

“I’m Tom
Reinsdorf
, with the United Stated Geological Survey. We’re
here helping the locals deal with this volcano. Jesse and I were taking one
more pass over
Misti
when we saw you all. Good thing
we happened along when we did.” Tom extended his hand and the two men shook.

“Well, Tom, I’m
grateful that you did come by and even more grateful that you were willing to
stop and help us out. You guys really put yourselves in some serious danger to
help out a bunch of strangers.”

“Thanks, but we
should probably hold off on any appreciation until we actually get you all back
to safety.”

“Tom, I need
you up here!” Jesse called.

“Excuse me,
folks.” Tom walked up to the cockpit, leaving the group alone. “What’s going
on, Jesse?”

“We’re almost
to the other side of the mountain, and I’ve got some bad news. Looks like one
of those shots we took must have hit a hydraulic line. We’ve been losing
pressure, and I’m having a hard time keeping this bird under control.”

“Are you saying
we’re not going to make it?”

“I’m not sure
if we’ll be able to fly all the way back to the airport, and even if we do,
there’s no way we’ll be able to take any kind of evasive maneuvers. It’ll take
all I’ve got just to keep this thing in the air.”

“So once we
clear the mountain, we’ll be sitting ducks for those guys to cut to pieces. Is
that about right?” Tom asked. Jesse nodded. “How far are we from the airport?”

“About three
miles out. You’d better tell them to strap in tight, we might have to make an
emergency landing and hope for the best.” Tom nodded and disappeared back into
the main cabin of the helicopter.

The injured
Sikorsky struggled forward, smoke pluming from the damaged hydraulic line in
the rear tail structure. Not a light craft to begin with, it now handled like a
brick with wings. Jesse struggled to keep control, but the added weight of the
extra passengers only made flying that much more difficult. And to make things
worse, they were quickly approaching the end of the curving, tree-covered path
he had used to keep the other helicopter from getting a clear shot at them.

Tom addressed
his passengers: “Everyone, if I give you the signal that we’re going down, I
need you all to hold onto something solid and brace yourselves for impact.
Jesse will try his best to keep the helicopter under control, but he can only
do so much.” With this piece of news, glances were exchanged in the main cabin
as grips tightened around anything that appeared solid.

As the Sikorsky
cleared the tree line, Jesse glanced back to see how close his pursuers were.
He immediately regretted looking, as the combat chopper popped immediately into
view. Although Jesse couldn’t see his face, he felt certain that the gunner in
the opposing chopper had a wide grin on his face seeing the ailing Sikorsky in
wide-open skies. The now familiar sound of fifty-millimeter rounds ripped the
air around them and, once again, some found their mark. Jesse could hear
screams from the back as another window exploded inward. The stick became
heavier in his hands, and his worst fears were soon realized.